Hulk TV Pilot Is Just Waiting For Writer, Guillermo Del Toro Teases

Guillermo del Toro, bless his heart, seldom has anything more to offer than his enthusiasm when he’s inevitably asked about the status of his live-action Hulk revival, which has been in a holding pattern at ABC for … well, a while now. Last month the filmmaker assured fans “we’re still on,” which doesn’t tell us much more than we knew when the project was announced in November 2010.

But in a new interview with Collider, del Toro drops a nugget that both explains the current delay and leaves us intrigued.

“I had one meeting with Marvel after Avengers and we had a very, very good chat,” he said. “We have a writer that we want to bring on board, a very, very concrete name. I can’t reveal it, but we want to wait for that writer. It’s a writer who is otherwise engaged. So right now we are in a holding pattern until that writer becomes free. Then we’re going to do a new draft of the script.”

I can’t begin to guess who the writer might be, but it’s presumably someone in the same league as executive producers del Toro and David Eick (Battlestar Galactica), who collaborated on the original pilot script. (Del Toro will also oversee the design of the Hulk, and may direct the pilot if his busy schedule permits.)

Although the ABC had initially hoped to see a Hulk pilot this spring, the project is now being targeted for the 2013-2014 television season.

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Comments

Awesome! They’ve hired the cast, built all the sets, the caterers are hard at work cooking…now all they need is a writer!

Oh wait. That not how the process works. If you haven’t even hired a writer, you basically haven’t done anything.

Thehorselord

I’ll write the damn thing. Give me a job!

jrau18

Someone didn’t read the article… “So right now we are in a holding pattern until that writer becomes free. Then we’re going to do a new draft of the script.” A new DRAFT of the script. They have one already.

hulkrules

Oh god I just jizzed in my pants!!!

sandwich eater

I love the Hulk, and I know he had a TV show around 35 years ago, but I have no interest in a modern Hulk show.

I have my doubts that they will be able to have the budget for good CG and enough destruction to do the Hulk justice. Basically it’ll probably be the Bruce Banner show, with occasional guest star, the Hulk.

Of the Avengers, Captain America seems the most logical to get a TV show to me. He wears a simple costume, and there’s no special effects needed to render his abilities. I could imagine a good Cap show with a TV budget where he’s an urban vigilante trying to adjust to life in the 21st century.

Xsikal

Honestly, given that they won’t be able to get Ruffalo to play the part, it does not make sense to me to have yet another hulk, this time in a tv format. I understand they did not expect for Hulk to blow up quite like he did after Avengers, but now that he has, having a tv show not starring the actor seems likely to dilute the brand or confuse viewers.

I’d rather they repurpose the hulk show as a she-hulk show, and leave hulk for the big screen where he can get the fx he needs.

Rollo Tomassi

That’s Hollywood code for ‘the first draft was wretched and/or exceeded our budgetarybestimates’. They are starting from scratch and don’t have a new writer. This show is nowhere close to getting made after two years.
This is the equivalent of Picasso tweeting “Hey I haven’t painted anything in two years, but I MIGHT swing by the paint store on the way home from Pilates and buy some brushes!” and then everyone on the Internet going “Cool! A new Picasso soon!”

yeah. No. Nothing happened here.

sandwich eater

I think that this is a good idea. She-Hulk can be done more cheaply since she is not prone to rampages like the Hulk. Also since she doesn’t look monstrous like the Hulk, all they really need is a really tall woman and green body paint.

How would you all feel about the new series being a loose sequel to the original series? would Marvel have a problem with it?

If they did a loose sequel now they’ll probably reveal that Banner
didn’t die from the fall instead went into deep hibernation, the down
side it would lack any supporting characters or villains from the comics
and use only the continuity of the Bixby/ Ferrigno show.

Jack R

How the heck are they going to equal the quality effects of the Hulk from the movie week after week on a TV show? It’s not like you can go backwards after they nailed it in Avengers…

Gilberto Edwards

It will be a Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno old classic TV series when Bruce Banner exposed a accidental Gamma Radation to his DNA that causes him to transform to a seven foot Hulking Green Ceature.